Pancreatic cancer is one of Australia's most lethal cancers and according to a surgeon it could be better treated by conducting complex surgical procedures in specialised centres. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth biggest cancer killer in Australia.
According to Robert Padbury, the director of surgical and specialty services at Flinders Medical Centre in South Australia, there is evidence that limiting pancreatic cancer surgery to specialised hospitals improved outcomes for patients.
Dr Padbury said median survival rates after surgery were relatively short and long-term cure was rare. “There is considerable evidence that concentrating complex procedures such as pancreatectomy in specialised centres leads to significant outcome improvement,” Dr Padbury wrote in the Medical Journal of Australia today.
He added that Western Australia now limited pancreatectomy procedures to three hospitals in response to poor surgical outcomes. Dr Padbury said it was time similar specialised centres were embraced in Australia. “It is not just about surgical mortality, but providing better care to patients with pancreatic cancer and contributing to the research effort and knowledge base for this lethal condition,” he said.
A Victorian study of 763 patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, published in the same edition, found of 75 who had major surgery, seven (9.3 per cent) died within three months. Among 10 patients who survived five years after surgery, the disease recurred in three. About half of those surveyed in the study were male (391), only 44 were younger than 50 and about a quarter were over 80 years of age. Royal Melbourne Hospital gastroenterologist Antony Speer, the lead author of the study, said older age and more advanced disease contributed to poor survival.
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